[center][b]MAIN FACILITY -- MESS HALL, NEW ANCHORAGE[/b][/center]
[hr]
Commander Graham’s announcement was clear: look busy. Jan Van Gent could do that. Just as soon as he finished making his latest sandwich, no less; it was masterpiece this time. A towering monstrosity of ham, cheese, lettuce, more ham, bacon strips, mayonnaise, and some more bacon strips. All put between two slices of bread he had cut himself from a loaf baked to his instructions. Truly, it was a work of culinary art in every regard... and now that it was finished he somewhat wondered where he could eat it while looking busy. Perhaps the NC Hangar? Yes, that seemed like a good spot. He could go order some grease monkeys around for a quick system check on Goldenspur.

And so Jan and his sandwich slipped quickly towards the hangar, the lead tech on his NC knew the drill by now. 

"Van Gent, you miserable twat... do you ever actually do anything actually important around here that doesn't involve piloting this thing?" The voice of Chief Engineer Valdislav Kuznetsov groaned in sharp discontent as he caught Jan's approach from his position from behind one of Goldenspur's bipedal legs. The veteran mechanic and NC technician had decided to get his hands dirty and do the maintenance on Goldenspur himself rather than having any of the underlings in the department. After all, he hated sitting at his desk so it was a good excuse to get away from it. Nothing worse than doing nothing when you could be doing something; at least that was his perspective.

"You try and pilot it then, go on, I'll wait here to call in a stretcher. Gives me enough time to finish this little snack here."  Jan simply gave the man his signature infuriatingly smug smirk. Despite the back and forth stabbing he still quite respected the man's diligence. Still, as far as Jan figured it "a man's got to eat his sandwich when the call of a sandwich beckoned". "Anything that needs a checkup on the old girl?" Jan asked, trying to at least pretend he was here to do something important.

The chief engineer sighed as he dropped the tool that was in his hand as he placed it on the ground. As he stood up from his crouched position he finally replied to the question. “Honestly? The repairs for your NC that were [i]necessary[/i] were done a while ago, ever since Sophia decided to go off the reservation you guys have been sitting around doing nothing and I’ve been just making sure the gears work and make sure these damned NC's are clean. It’s [i]fucking boring.[/i]”

"Aye... It has been, I must confess I only came here because I literally couldn't think of anywhere else I could even pretend I'm doing something useful... But then again, us not having work could also be seen as a... good thing? I guess. I mean, it means we won't need to kill people for another day."

“Graham just wants you to look pretty and not like you’re a slacker. Jokes on him though, you’re already a slacker!” The man grinned through his beard as if ignoring Jan's comment about not finding work being a good thing, “At least you’ve got your looks, though that can’t last long if you keep getting klonked by the girl.”

"Getting klonked? What’s that supposed to mean?" Jan asked in confusion... did he mean Stein Kalfox?

“Did you forget when Stein kneed you in your— never mind, you’re stupid. Ignore me.”

Jan did remember that one time when he first met Stein, but that was before he had developed a sort of... respect for her. Nowadays he considered her... not exactly a friend, but someone he quite loved to pester. It was the only reaction he could make think of against such an uncompromising exterior. He half expected her to be standing behind her right now, just giving him her signature judging stare.

Valdislav kicked his feet as he leaned against a long metal support, hands tucked in his pockets. “This does mean Graham is nearly ready to put you kids back in the field. I wonder how he’ll do with that compared to Sophia. Speaking of her, though— what was your version of her? Seems everyone on base has a different outlook about 'er.”

Jan took another bite of his sandwich as he considered the question. He hadn't ever really gotten to know Sophia that well, for all he knew, she might have been the best commander ever before she decided to bug out and desert. "I really can't say man. I'd known her for maybe a few days before she... walked out."

The chief engineer raised a brow, “She’s not going to come up from behind you if you talk ill of her, you know; but I guess you are right there. You couldn’t have had much concerns with her. You did what… two or three missions with her at the helm? Really it was like we blinked and she was gone. Spooky shit.”

"Why did she leave anyway? I never really caught the reason. I heard some reasons, but most of them seem to conflict with each other."
“Depends who you ask. She was cozy with Elizabeth Jackspar, but she talks less than Stein does.” Valdislav sighed as he looked down at his wrist to check the time. “If you want my opinion? She had a nervous breakdown and went what you’d call ‘AWOL’. I just call it crazy.”

"Yeah, that seems the most likely explanation, most commanders don't just bug out for no apparent reason... and hey, Graham took over pretty nicely, though I don't really know who he is. I've heard some stories about his exploits, but I've never had the pleasure of working with or for him before. He seems to know his stuff though, at least from what I know of him." Jan commented.

“Yeah.” Valdislav looked to his left and right to see if anybody else was in earshot before adding on to his reply. “Graham [i]scares[/i] me and I don’t have the faintest clue why. Maybe it’s how quick he came in here and got things organized following Sophia's leaving, the fact he came out of [i]nowhere[/i] when New Anchorage hired his ass, or the fact that he’s throwing these regulations and expectations around as if we were some military outfit. I don’t know about you, but it just makes me uncomfortable.”  

"Yeah, now that you mention it... he has run quite an extensive reorganization of this operation. And all the new blood he's bringing in, almost like he's building an army or something. I know I've survived as long as I did by walking out on people that thought they could take on the mega-corps in some sort of insurrection." Jan whispered the last part of his sentence, almost like he was afraid of openly criticizing the commander. "Listen, [i]if[/i] he ever goes full retard like that, I have a passenger compartment in Goldenspur... consider it reserved for you."

“I don’t know if you’re being friendly or if you’re being [i]friendly[/i]. Just so you know, I’m too old for that and I don’t wrench that way.” The comment from the chief engineer seemed to come out of left field, perhaps the snarky jab was a way to settle his own fears and anxiety? Heh, perhaps Jan was finally starting to understand people in this mess of a base.

"Yeah, screw you too mate." Jan finished his sandwich and spent some more time looking at the mechanics doing their job. To a casual oserver, he would look like he was overseeing things.

“Again, no thanks.” Valdislav laughed.